Page 153 of Something So Strong

“I swear to god, if you say anything even remotely sexual, I’ll put a padlock on my pants until you get it through your thick skull that all that is just the icing on the cake.”

I wrap my lips around my teeth and close my mouth tight.

He grins. “You’ve got such a one-track mind.”

“And you don’t?”

“Clearly not,” he huffs with a smile. “Where have you been for the past five minutes?”

“Do you love me?”

I don’t know why I asked that.

I’m already trying to escape Jesse’s hold, but he won’t let me budge.

“If you only hear one thing I’ve said today, make sure it’s this…”

His head bows and his eyes almost darken as they stare up at me.

“It’s clear that you don’t understand just how important you are to me…”

The depth of Jesse’s tone is even more commanding than when he was wringing my neck in the early hours of this morning.

“So trust me when I say this… I’d fucking kill for you, Kai.”

I’m sprinting. My labored breath is ringing in my ears.

I leap over some rubble and just make it to the shelter of a dilapidated building before a barrage of bullets rain down on me.

I take a moment—back pressed against exposed concrete—and file through my arsenal to find my AX-50; magazine full.

Scanning the room, I eye the stairs, but they’re on the other side of an open window. Crouching, I commando crawl beneath it and bound up to the second floor.

It’s a bedroom. Well, it was at some point. Now it houses a bare bed frame and a dirty mattress upright against the wall.

I creep to the window that’s lightly sheltered by torn curtains.

Rifle resting on the sill, I bring my eye to the scope and scour the horizon, then down through the buildings.

Target spotted.

Finger on the trigger.

Three.

Two.

One—

A hand grazes my inner thigh.

I hesitate.

“Goddammit, Kendrick! Take the fucking shot!”

“I am!”

I shut my eyes tight to pull my focus back.

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